Saturday, October 8, 2016

My Favorite Apple Cobbler

Another great dessert for fall when apples are at their peak season. Apple cobbler is one of the easiest
desserts to make…..ever. Truly. The “hard” part is peeling and slicing the
apples and that’s not very hard at all. Depending on your skill with a peeler
and a knife, that might be the most time-consuming part of this recipe but
after that, the rest is easy.

This is my favorite cobbler recipe and
technically, it wasn’t even supposed to be a cobbler. I just called it that for
simplicity. The original name was Apple Crumble Bars and you were supposed to
serve it as a bar cookie. But it works even better as a cobbler. I’ve made this countless times since I first
discovered the recipe but I haven’t posted about it every time I make it. This
time, I’m re-posting it again as, similar to the coconut cake, I’m finding the
blogger search box doesn’t return this recipe even when I search for it in the
search box. Fortunately I pinned it awhile back so I can navigate to it from
pinterest but not blogger. How ironic.

It’s hard for me to take a good picture of
cobbler. I don’t know why. I’ve tried and I’m not a good enough food
photographer to stage the dish or a serving of it so that you can appreciate the
perfect blend of tart apples (they don’t come out clearly enough under the
streusel topping) supported by the crust (can’t see it clearly under the apple
filling) and complemented by the sweet streusel. Serve warm with vanilla ice
cream and you have a winner.

Crust and Topping

2 cups all-purpose flour

¼ cup powdered sugar

¾ cup packed light brown sugar

6 ounces (1 ½ sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into ½” pieces

Apple Filling

3 cups peeled and cored apples chopping into ½” pieces (about 3 large apples) (I ended up using 4 apples just to make sure there was enough)

1 tablespoon granulated sugar (I used 1 1/2 tbps)

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice (I used 1 1/2 tbps)

Preheat the oven to 325˚F. Line a 9 x 9 x 2-inch baking pan with heavy aluminum foil that extends over 2 ends of the pan. Butter the foil that will touch the bars. (If you're not going to cut as bars, bake in a nice serving dish and omit the foil but lightly spray the bottom with nonstick cooking spray.)

Mix the flour, powdered sugar and brown sugar together in a medium bowl. Add the butter pieces, cutting them into the dry ingredients until they’re the size of peas and well-coated in the flour mixture. Remove 2 cups of the mixture and set aside. Transfer the remaining mixture to the prepared pan and press it evenly over the bottom.

Mix the filling: Stir the apples, sugar and lemon juice together in a large bowl. Stir in the raisins, if using. Spoon the filling over the prepared crust, distributing it evenly. Sprinkle the reserved crumbs evenly over the apple filling.

Bake until the crumb topping is golden and the apples are soft when tested with a toothpick, about 55 minutes. Carefully lift the aluminum foil and bars from the baking pan. Loosen the foil from the sides of the bars. Cut into 12 to 16 pieces. Serve warm, with vanilla ice cream, if desired.